RightsNews Staff
Tim Shenk, Editor
Erica Mac Donald, Assistant Editor
Rachel Boehr, Photo Editor
Staff writers: Ihotu Ali, Anjali Dixit, Christine Heckman, Dragana Kaurin, Dorothy Lovell, Tanya O’Carroll, Eleanor O. Rousseau Oxholm, Eve Warburton
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May, 2011 - Volume 29, no. 3
SIPA Welcomes Michelle Bachelet for International Women’s Day
Christine Heckman
In celebration of International Women’s Day and the launch of UN Women, a new United Nations agency for women’s empowerment and equality, the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) hosted a March 2 event with former President of Chile and Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet. “A Conversation…
Sex Trafficking and the Super Bowl
Christine Heckman
Our meeting in Arlington, Texas, began with the reading of a heart-wrenching letter. Its author was a mother who last year, as well as the year before that, had been standing among the group of people that currently surrounded us. However, as we listened to her words being read aloud,…
Human Rights in the Post-Communist World
Rachel Boehr
The Harriman Institute has organized a year-long lecture series on “Human Rights and the Post-Communist World.” Professors Jack Snyder and Alexander Cooley, both faculty of Harriman Institute and of Columbia and Barnard’s political science departments, respectively, spoke with RightsNews about the series. Q: How did this series come about? Cooley:…
Transitional justice from the Berlin Wall to the Arab spring
Tim Shenk
Since the end of the Cold War, countries transitioning to democracy have faced many dilemmas related to human rights abuses committed by their former regimes. From Poland 20 years ago to Egypt today, new leaders must decide whether to prosecute former officials or grant them amnesty for political reasons. Leading…
Stopping the illegal trade in weapons
Tim Shenk
“The arms trade is out of control at the moment.” So said Anna MacDonald, one of four experts who spoke about the prospects for a global treaty on conventional weapons in a February 22 panel discussion at the School of International and Public Affairs. MacDonald is the head of Oxfam’s…
A dissident of the human rights establishment
Erica Mac Donald
Freedom of expression is a human right, but employees of human rights organizations are not always free to exercise it. Last year, Gita Sahgal was suspended from her position as head of Amnesty International’s Gender, Sexuality and Identity unit shortly after publicly criticizing the organization for its work with a…
Opinion: Debating social media and revolution
Tanya O’Carroll
Were the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt “Twitter Revolutions”? This debate has echoed back and forth across Columbia in the past six weeks. No less than five panel discussions have taken place on campus, with leading academics, journalists and activists offering their insights on the potential and the limitations…
Henkin the teacher
Tim Shenk
The legacy of Columbia University Professor Louis Henkin, who pioneered the study of human rights, has shaped the field of human rights advocacy as we know it today. One contribution that should not be overlooked is his role as a teacher to some of today’s leading advocates. In a March…
February, 2011 - Volume 29, no. 2
Aiding asylum seekers in NYC
Eve Warburton and Tanya O’Carroll
Four months ago, a middle-aged man from West Africa arrived at JFK airport having escaped political persecution in his home country. With no English or contacts in the United States, Michel searched for someone who looked African and might speak French. He approached a taxi driver outside the airport who…
40 years of workers’ rights
Anjali Dixit
On Nov. 4, students and faculty at the Mailman School of Public Health celebrated the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as part of the federal government. Dr. David Michaels, a graduate of Columbia University and current Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA,…
16 days of activism against gender violence
Eleanor O. Rosseau
In 1991, the first participants of the Women’s Global Leadership Institute (WGLI) at the Rutgers Center for Women’s Global Leadership launched the inaugural 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign. By spanning from Nov. 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, to Dec. 10, International Human…
The unfinished business of Africa’s longest wars
Erica Mac Donald and Tim Shenk
Southern Sudan and northern Uganda have both experienced decades of war with grave humanitarian consequences, spurring international involvement at many levels. Unfortunately, it will be difficult to achieve a lasting peace in either region due to unresolved political conflicts, according to Mareike Schomerus, a fellow with the Global Public Policy…
Understanding children’s rights violations in eastern Congo
Ihotu Ali
“Jambo!” and other words of welcome greeted our research team in each new village as we conducted a population-based survey of human rights abuses committed against children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This past summer, I joined a team of Columbia University public health students, staff and…
Evaluating corruption
Christine Heckman
On Nov. 11, Columbia University’s Harriman Institute of Russian, Eurasian and Eastern European Studies hosted a panel discussion entitled “The Politics of International Corruption Ratings” as part of its series Human Rights in the Post-Communist World, co-convened by Professors Jack Snyder and Alexander Cooley. The panel consisted of Mlada Bukovansky,…
Opinion: Controversy over Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut in Bosnia
Dragana Kaurin
Over the past decade we have seen a rise of young, talented filmmakers in Bosnia. Films such as Welcome to Bosnia, The Days and Hours, Fraulein and Grbavica address the social and political issues facing Bosnia in post-war life. These films approach the issues of families separated by war, lost…
Louis Henkin’s legacy
Dorothy Lovell and Tim Shenk
Louis Henkin, a pioneering international lawyer and scholar who established human rights as an academic discipline, died on October 14, 2010, at the age of 92. Professor Henkin was born in 1917 in present-day Belarus and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1923. He went on…
October, 2010 - Volume 29, no. 1
ISHR welcomes 2010 human rights advocates
Dorothy Lovell
The Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) introduced its 2010 Human Rights Advocates to students, faculty and the wider Columbia University community at a Sept. 22 reception. The 10 advocates, chosen from 170 applicants, represent eight different countries and work on a wide range of issues from union…
Students kick off year with weekend retreat
Christine Heckman
Thirty-five students of human rights and humanitarian affairs from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and the School of Social Work embarked on SIPA’s annual weekend retreat in the Catskill Mountains on Sept. 24. While the retreat may sound much like a weekend at summer camp to some,…
After 62 years, Nuremberg documentary debuts
Erica Mac Donald
Sixty-two years after the production of “Nuremberg: Its Lessons for Today,” the documentary made its U.S. premier at the New York City Film Festival on Sept. 28. The film, originally directed by Stuart Schulberg and completed in 1948 under the auspices of the Office of Strategic Services within the United…
Measuring the impact of human rights
Tim Shenk
The human rights movement is under increasing scrutiny as activists, donors and policymakers ask how human rights work can be measured and evaluated. Can human rights conditions be quantified and compared between different places and times? What can such measurements tell us, for example, about the practical effects…
Opinion: Confronting the ethical dilemmas of advocacy
Anjali Dixit
Western human rights advocates who speak on behalf of individuals in developing countries are often criticized for reinforcing existing East-West power dynamics. Critics argue that human rights advocates create and perpetuate an image of a homogenous “Third World” populated by oppressed people who have no variety, thought or agency. These…
A victory for domestic workers
Dorothy Lovell
Joycelyn Gill-Campbell, organiz-ing director for Domestic Workers United (DWU), experienced trials and triumphs along the road to the passage of New York’s Bill of Rights for Domestic Workers. The bill, which was signed into New York state law on Aug. 31, 2010, grants labor rights to domestic workers (workers in…
One for the books
Eve Warburton
Columbia University’s Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research (CHRDR) is home to a critical mass of human rights documents. Much of the collection consists of archives dating back to the 1970s from leading international organizations, including Amnesty International-USA, Human Rights Watch and, most recently, the Committee to Protect Journalists.…
From conflict zones to summer school
Eleanor Rousseau Oxholm
Many American students spend their last weeks of summer dreading the beginning of another grueling semester of research papers and final exams—but when fall rolls around, at least we know what to expect. For newly arrived refugee youths in New York City, many of whom have spent years in…
April, 2010 - Volume 28, no. 2
Announcing the Institute for the Study of Human Rights
Tim Shenk
The Trustees of Columbia University have approved a proposal for the Center for the Study of Human Rights to become an institute in order to coordinate human rights studies throughout the university and connect with scholars and practitioners around the world. The change is effective immediately, and the center…
Historical commissions: successes and failures
Daniel Mahla
The view that scholarship can and in fact should be separated from politics is a fairly common notion. This idea, however, is severely flawed. Historians and other scholars cannot and must not ignore the political dimension of their work. This, at least, was the central message that Elazar Barkan, co-director…
Environmental migration and the dilemmas of displacement
Rebecca Chao
Representatives from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the governments of Australia and Bangladesh presented their views on climate change migration at the April 5 panel discussion, “Migration and Climate Change: Managing the Displaced.” “Migration is the most disruptive aspect of climate change,” said Alex de Sherbinin,…
“Sexual terrorism” in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Melissa Kemp
“Raise Hope for Congo” is the name of the Enough Project’s campaign to protect and empower women and girls in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Those who attended an April 7 “Raise Hope for Congo” panel discussion at the School for International and Public Affairs gained a better…
Opinion: Time for pragmatism on women’s rights treaty
Anjali Dixit
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly, is also known as the international bill of rights for women. CEDAW compels its signatories to create a normative framework of nondiscrimination and equality for women. In so…
Global award goes to Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumna
Prof. Jenik Radon
Margo Drakos (GSAS ‘08), Chief Operating Officer of InstantEncore.com, has been honored by the Forum of Young Global Leaders, a community of extraordinary achievers under the age of 40, led by the World Economic Forum and headed by Queen Rania of Jordan. Each year the Forum recognizes and acknowledges up…
Opinion: Haiti’s broken promises
Ihotu Ali
In 1804, Haiti experienced its first broken promise. After winning a hard-fought war for independence, France refused freedom to Haitian slaves unless they paid 150 million francs (the modern day equivalent of $21 billion) and plunged Haiti into debt and crippled governance for generations. Now, with government buildings devastated and…
Opinion: Rage against virtual rape: the Japanese video game controversy
Kei Hiruta
Japan’s sex industry and alleged sexism have again become a source of international concern after a recent CNN report on Japanese rape simulation video games. The coverage attracted a wide audience beyond feminists, women’s rights activists, and specialists in Japanese politics and culture. The specific software featured on CNN was…
Russian activists go to jail to defend their constitutional rights
Tim Shenk
On the 31st day of every month that has 31 days, Russian human rights activists stage a silent demonstration in a public square in Moscow. They stand quietly and peacefully, each wearing a badge that says “31” — the number of the article in the Russian constitution that guarantees the…
February, 2010 - Volume 28, no. 1
Students and faculty return from Haiti following earthquake
Tessa Hager-Holson and Heather Hansen
On Jan. 20, Dean Coatsworth and other members of the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) administration held a welcome home reception for Professor Lindenmayer and six SIPA students as well as two faculty members from the Earth Institute who were in Haiti during the recent earthquake. As part…
Welcome to RightsNews
Elazar Barkan
The wrenching images from Haiti have dominated public discussion since the horrific earthquake last month. Several of our students who were working in Haiti were lucky to escape harm and have returned after spending the first few days in Port-au-Prince aiding and surviving at the same time. …
Event focuses on children in war
Tim Shenk
Ishmael Beah, a children’s rights activist and former child soldier, headlined a Nov. 18 panel discussion on child soldiers, “Children on the Front Line.” Beah wrote an acclaimed memoir, A Long Way Gone, about his experiences as a child soldier in Sierra Leone’s civil war. Beah and other panelists spoke…
Human Rights Advocate brings Mexico’s “Dirty War” to light
Tim Shenk
Rosendo Radilla Pacheco, a former mayor in Mexico’s Guerrero state, was riding a bus with his 11-year-old son on Aug. 25, 1974, when soldiers stopped the bus at a checkpoint. They recognized Radilla and accused him of writing corridos — Mexican folksongs that sometimes celebrated left-wing causes. Radilla asked, “Is…
The long road to indigenous rights
Tim Shenk
After decades of advocacy by indigenous groups, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. Robert T. Coulter, executive director of the Indian Law Resource Center, spoke about his role in creating the declaration during a Nov. 23 lecture at SIPA. “It was…
Conflict and compromise in the Middle East
Tim Shenk
Hanna Ziadeh, a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Human Rights, discussed his research topic, “The Trail of Blood: The search for an intercommunal national system in Lebanon and Iraq,” in an Oct. 28 presentation at the School of International and Public Affairs. Ziadeh’s work stems in…
Human Rights Advocates Program: Building leaders
Alex Burnett
Every fall semester, respected human rights leaders from around the world make New York City and Columbia University their home, immersing themselves in policy debates, networking and advanced training. Their goal is to build on their skills, knowledge and contacts to return home ready to resume the fight for human…
Free Kian Tajbakhsh, Columbia faculty member imprisoned in Iran
Twenty Columbia faculty members and officers signed a letter requesting that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton help secure the release of Kian Tajbakhsh from an Iranian prison. Dr. Tajbakhsh was found guilty of “political crimes” by an Iranian court on Oct. 20, 2009, following his support of the Iranian…
Developing incentives for peace in Darfur
Tim Shenk
Seven years after violence erupted in Sudan’s Darfur region, the conflict has stubbornly continued despite all attempts at international mediation. The Center for the Study of Human Rights is carrying out a program called the Darfur Development Initiative to promote peace in the troubled region. The goal is to identify…
